Launched my first Virtual Machine

Azure VM Deployment & Secure Remote Access
What I did: Provisioned a virtual machine on Microsoft Azure from scratch — networking, deployment, and secure SSH access — and connected to it from a local terminal.
Skills Learnt include

1. Networking Fundamentals

Learned and applied CIDR notation to define IP address ranges
Understood IP address allocation logic within a network
Configured subnets to segment network address space

1. Azure Resource Architecture

Created a Resource Group (logical container for cloud resources)
Deployed a Virtual Network (VNet) with associated subnets
Provisioned a Virtual Machine within that network

1. Secure Remote Access (Linux/Unix)

Retrieved and managed SSH key-pair credentials (.pem file)
Applied correct file permission hardening (chmod 400) to protect private keys (a security best practice)
Constructed and executed an SSH connection command using key-based authentication
Understood and handled host-key verification (known_hosts trust-on-first-use)